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muumi: Both books are well-written novels of suspense which use the device of an English-speaking orphan raised in a very different milieu (Badamaya, Burma and the Himalayas respectively) to explore cultural assumptions in a fascinating and sometimes humorous manner.

This was the first Madeleine Brent book I ever read and it remains my favorite. Once I read this as a teenager, I had to find the rest of her books.

This is the story of Jani, a girl who is raised by Sembur in the hills of Tibet. She is taken to England when he dies and eventually becomes part of a family. She never forgets Mister, the young officer who cared for her when she was a sick child.

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This absorbing and mysterious novel opens in the remote regions of the Himalayas, where the strange and lovely heroine, Jani, has been brought up by a runaway English soldier on the borders of Tibet. Both Jani’s past and that of her protector are shrouded in a mystery that grows ever deeper for Jani when the foreign demon on a black horse comes from the south to take her away for a new and frightening world—a London orphanage. Later, when she moves on and finds the ‘Woman in Red’, Jani becomes one of the family in a Hampshire household. And it is here that her past is gradually uncovered, and she becomes locked in a macabre struggle, long prophesied by the High Lama of her Tibetan days, against the strange and terrifying powers of the Silver Man. Madeleine Brent’s story of love and loyalty, of mystery and danger, moves to a startling climax back amid the mountains on the roof of the world, where it all began.

Haiku summary

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▾Library descriptions

This absorbing and mysterious novel opens in the remote regions of the Himalayas, where the strange and lovely heroine, Jani, has been brought up by a runaway English soldier on the borders of Tibet, and moves on to encompass the rich and ancient mythology of bygone Britain. Both Jani's past and that of her soldier protector are shrouded in a mystery that grows ever deeper for Jani when the foreign demon on a black horse comes from the south to take her away to a new and frightening world - a London orphanage. Later, when she moves on and finds the Woman in Red, Jani becomes one of the family in a Hampshire household. And it is here that her past is gradually uncovered, and she becomes locked in a macabre struggle, long prophesied by the High Lama of her Tibetan days, against the strange and terrifying powers of the Silver Man. Madeleine Brent's story of love and loyalty, of mystery and danger, moves on to a startling climax back amid the mountains on the roof of the world, where it all began.… (more)